2013 Tech Predictions: A Ciaccia Look Back

TheStreet reviews its 10 tech predictions for 2013. Some were spot on, others were beyond putrid.

People have been speculating about an Apple-branded television since Steve Jobs mentioned the idea in his biography. "I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," Jobs told his biographer, Walter Isaacson. "It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud." No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. "It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it."

I mused that it would happen last year, but now it looks like a rollout may take place in 2013. Some analysts on Wall Street are saying the same thing.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicts Apple will launch a television set in November 2013, selling between $1,500 and $2,000. "We expect the beauty of the design to be a feature, but the most important feature will be the ability to use the TV as the main interface for the living room across multiple devices. We believe the TV will include Siri and FaceTime. The biggest item unlikely to come with the TV will be unbundled channels," Munster wrote in his note.

I think we may get one earlier than November, perhaps as early as March. Apple has moved up the iPad release to October, the iPhone is in September and Macs may be refreshed in June. Spring is open on Apple's calendar.

Review:

I was beyond awful on this one, and at this point, I'm worse than Munster when predicting the start of an Apple television set. At this point, I'm done predicting when, or if, we'll see an Apple-branded television set despite knowing that the damn thing exists!!

I'm going to focus more on Apple's set-top box, Apple TV, and how it plans to reinvent the television experience that way. Apple CEO Timothy D. Cook has said in the past that television is "an area of intense interest" for Apple, but we haven't seen an actual television set just yet. My thinking is that we may never see an actual television set, given the long life spans sets have, and the relatively low margins.

Of course, I say this now, and given Cook's comments, about moving into new product areas, watch me eat my words.